Quinine Neat!
p. 89 · Read in the full issue
When They Took Their
By D. H. Osborne.
IN the early days of the Papua gold fields, quinine was sold in ounce bottles, before tabloids were on the market. We used to dissolve it in cold tea. It was vile stuff to swallow. One Dutch chemist, in Java, used to put up an extra bitter lot.
One day I met an old miner, who asked for a dose of quinine. I was some
distance from my camp at the time. I said “I will send you half of the quinine in the camp.” He sent a native with me.
At the camp, there were two 1-ounce bottles, each with about 2 1 L > or 3 penny weights in them. I sent one bottle.
The next time I met the miner, he said: “You take large doses of quinine.”
“Good God! Did you take it in one dose?” I exclaimed.
“I dissolved it in half a pannikin of cold tea,” he said, “and I drank it for several days. I imagined I was walking on the air.” I told him he was lucky that he was not walking with the angels.